Give me strength, or give me death!

[Wolffenbuttel]

Sounds solid brother!

KUTGW!!

[Phedder]

good spell of training going on in here :nod:

Here's hoping it stays that way Same to you Damo, in awe of the intensity you manage to keep whilst dropping so much weight :clap:

Sounds solid brother!

KUTGW!!

Will do, it's a lot easier than your dieting haha.

Deadlifts + assistance

Speed deads

lots x bar - Warming up with the bar for deads, possibly a first

5x70kg

3x110kg

5x2x110kg + doubled blue band

3x150kg (LB)

1x190kg (TB)

1x210kg (TB)

1x220kg (TB) - Felt great, wanted to work up heavy enough to see how my lockout was going. Good steady speed throughout, no sign of a sticking point before lockout. Bodes well, I'll aim to pull a 240 in the few weeks I've got between finishing smolov and the nationals, would love a 250 at nats :pray:

2x1x190kg (TB)

DB rows - Strict

15x23kg

10x40kg

10x50kg

10x40kg

Lat Pulldowns SS Face Pulls

4x10x135 SS 4x12x60

Ezy bar curls

15x20kg

4x12x30kg

Ab wheel rollouts

10xbw - Way too easy \:D/

2x10xbw+10kg plate - Stoked, a month ago 5 with bw was difficult

Hanging leg raises

2x10xbw

[Phedder]

Smolov Intese W3D3

Weigh in: 101.3kg - Seems to be staying pretty consistent, will up the eats just a little over the next few weeks. I'd like to come into comp at 103ish.

Squats

lots x bar

2x5x60kg - Back was aching on these and through most of my warm ups :?

3x100kg

3x115kg (LB)

3x135kg (LB)

3x152.5kg (LB)

4x3x170kg - Vol PB 1st tight belt, last 3 sets I loosened it off 1 notch. No aches in the back by now, and they all came up pretty well. I expected it to be a horrible session but it turned out well. Technique's nice and solid under these weights now too :nod:

Speed Bench

lots x bar

10xbar + doubled red band

5x40kg + band

3x3x60kg + band

6x3x65kg +band

Seated DB Press

5x8x20kg

Press downs SS Lateral raises

3x12x60 SS 3x12x11kg

[Phedder]

Smolov Intense W4D1

Weigh in: 101.6kg

Squats

lots x bar

10x60kg

3x100kg

3x125kg (LB)

4x145kg (LB)

5x5x162.5kg (LB) - Felt better than the last time I did these, but far from easy.

Pull ups

3x5xbw

Weighted Chin ups

5xbw+10kg

3x5xbw+20kg

8xbw

Seated Cable rows

3x10x125 - D grip bar.

3x10x125 - V grip bar.

Face Pulls

4x12x60

SS

Alternating Hammer curls

4x8x20kg

Ezy bar Curls

3x12x30kg

[Phedder]

Smolov Intense Cycle, W4D2

Squats

lots x bar

10x60kg

3x100kg

3x125kg

3x150kg (LB)

4x3x170kg (LB)

Bench Press

lots x bar

2x5x60kg

3x80kg

2x1x100kg

1x110kg

1x115kg - Done with no spotter, flew up.

1x120kg - PB T'n'G I'm claiming it. I grabbed a spotter for this, unracked it myself and felt great in the hands, came down well and good power off the chest. Started slowing just past halfway point and the spotter put his fingers on the bar :evil: He swears he didn't take any weight, and it was definitely still moving fast enough there's no way I was going to fail it. Still frustrating though, I specifically told him not to touch the bar unless it started coming back down on me.

0x120kg - Tried again, probably didn't rest enough. Elbows flared out immediately, got about 1/4 way and stalled. This time spotter left me grinding for a good 2-3 seconds before barely helping for a 5 second rep once he touched the bar :doh: Fatigued as f*ck now.

2x110kg - T'n'G

2x2x105kg - Long Pauses

5x100kg

Close Grip Bench

5x5x80kg

Overhead Tricep Cable Extensions

5x12x40lb

SS

Lateral Raises

5x12x11kg

[AZIDE]

.

[M.T]

Dang bro Nice Squat numbers being moved and Bench is coming on nicely keep up the hard work mate

[hjp]

Bro as I always say man your work capacity is insane :shock:

Keep it up, I am interested in trying smolov after nats but want the 300 dead lol so not sure what to do... Hows your dead felt from all the squats?

[Phedder]

":2fwz5yed]Sucks about the getting spotted thing. That sht makes me rage. Probly rather get stuck under the bar than have that happen on a pb attempt

Yeah it was pretty frustrating, if it had been a grinder and he took it early I would have raged, but given it had some decent speed still I'm 100% confident I got it. Will try again this week anyway.

Dang bro Nice Squat numbers being moved and Bench is coming on nicely keep up the hard work mate

Cheers MT, just trying to stay within sight of your tail :wink:

Bro as I always say man your work capacity is insane :shock:

Keep it up, I am interested in trying smolov after nats but want the 300 dead lol so not sure what to do... Hows your dead felt from all the squats?

It wasn't today I'll be dropping it right back for the next 2 weeks leading up to nats, just hitting the main lifts heavy and the necessary assistance to keep me ticking along.

Dead has felt pretty good. Just doing enough speed work to keep technique down and the few heavy reps here and there has helped a lot this time through I think, not doing deads at all though my first base cycle was a big mistake. I'm pretty sure all the squatting has really brought up my hip power which was the weak point of my deadlift beforehand. I'm confident now I've got the strength there to pull a 245-250 if I can keep technique and everything else spot on. My lockout definitely doesn't feel as shit as it once was I'm actually planning on running the coan/phillipi deadlift prog to lead into either the Raw nats or the BBro so I'm confident I'll get some great gains from that.

[Phedder]

Smolov Intense W4D3 - Final day woo! (well I'm supposed to do 1 more day of 4x4x152.5kg but what's the point...Need more heavy work before nats.)

So I skipped my usual Thursday deads+assistance day to help rest up for today to ensure I nail it...Thursday night I didn't get home from work until almost 5am and we had builders working on the flat at 8am :doh: So on 2 hours or so of sleep of course I decided to go to a flat warming and end up drinking more than I intended, leaving me to do the final session today tired and hungover :oops: Whoops.

Squats

lots x bar

2x5x60kg

3x100kg

3x125kg (LB) - These felt so crap I almost threw in the towel here

3x145kg (LB) - still crap

4x160kg (LB) - Getting better...

3x4x170kg (LB) - Rep PB - I actually managed these :shock: By no means easy, but considering the state I was in I was surprised and stoked to get through these. Felt like shit the whole time but every time I went down I managed to stand back up

Speed deads (attempted...)

5x60kg

3x100kg

3x2x140kg - Called it there, no speed at all.

So not at all a good session, but I survived the full smolov cycle :grin: The next 2 weeks will be spent doing plenty of heavy work for the main lifts, Would like to get in 3x180, 2x190, and 1x200 for squats. Deads If I can work up to 240 for a PB I'll be stoked, and bench can do what it's gonna do

[Phedder]

No squats today, felt odd :shifty: I'll be going for 180x3 tomorrow though, if all goes well I'll likely open on 180 at nats, which was my best lift at my last comp

Weigh in: 101.7kg

Bench Press

lots x bar

2x5x60kg

3x80kg

2x100kg

1x110kg

1x115kg

1x120kg - All me and with relative ease :grin: Told spotter not to touch the bar unless it was crushing me and it came up really well. Even better than last week when the spotter touched the bar, should have gone for 122.5 really. Hopefully with a bit of adrenaline and a deload I'll nail this paused at Nats.

3x1x110kg - Long Pause singles

8x100kg - rep PB - Hadn't repped out 100 in quite a while, previous best was 5 and smashed that with ease. 10+ on the cards when fresh, will go for this after nationals as one of my goals has been to Bench my BW for 10 reps, made 8 or 9 a few times but never got to 10 :evil:

Pull ups - Too weak or too fat, likely a bit of both

2x7

6

5

Flat DB Press

10x23kg

5x33kg

5x41kg

10x30kg

Hang Cleans

3x3x60kg

Power Cleans

3x60kg

2x3x80kg

Circuit

Face Pulls - 3x12x60

Press downs - 3x12x60

BB curls - 3x12x30kg

Plate loaded row machine thingy...

2x10x1pps - Someone left it loaded so did 2 sets then unloaded it.

[hjp]

Damn! Nice bench there bro Rep PR, got to be pleased, 8 is a lot more than 5

[Phedder]

Cheers Hayden. Yeah pretty happy, but I had first hit 5 at 100 late last year some time, just never attempted any more since then haha. It's been waiting for the taking for quite a while.

Todays session went well, goal was 180x3 on the squats.

Weigh in:102.1kg - PB

Squats

lots x bar

2x5x60kg

3x100kg

3x120kg

3x140kg (LB)

1x170kg (LB)

3x180kg (LB) - Rep PB only ever done a single before, so solid PB. Likely be my opener at Nats, which is awesome progress considering 180 was my final lift at Otago Champs :grin: Felt pretty damn bawse repping 180 while there was a guy next to me quarter squatting 60

2x2x170kg (LB)

5x140kg (LB)

Seated DB shoulder press

10x13kg

5x21kg

5x5x23kg

AB wheel rollouts

10xbw

2x8xbw+10kg

SS

Hanging Leg raises

3x10xbw

Hardcore Plank

25sec - Man these get you shaking fast :shock:

So pretty simple and low volume session, will keep the volume low from now on as I'm just aiming to hit the heavier weights as hard as I can.

Also compiled my next 12 week training block to lead into my next comp (most likely BBro) it's bit of a mish mash of the coan/phillipi deadlift cycle which I added 2 weeks to the start to make up 12, the brad gillingham raw bench routine, and the squats from sheiko 37 with a bit of volume dropped, 4 week cycle ran through 3 times increasing 2.5% each time.

Here it is;

[M.T]

Woah and just like that we are dead even on Squats! Have 4x4 @180 this week not looking forward to it one bit.

Good work on this program showing some serious heart here bro repped.

Love your hybrid program too how long it take to jimmy that bad boy up?

[Phedder]

Woah and just like that we are dead even on Squats! Have 4x4 @180 this week not looking forward to it one bit.

Good work on this program showing some serious heart here bro repped.

Love your hybrid program too how long it take to jimmy that bad boy up?

Cheers MT, far from even on squats though, that triple killed me 3rd rep was a solid 3 second grinder. Could have maybe got out another set after a big rest, but definitey not 4 reps, and not for 4 sets :shock: You'll kill it bud :nod:

Took me 2 and a bit hours in excel but it's something that's been going through my head for a week or so, really just needed to figure out a way to incorporate squats and OB came to the rescue with sheiko 37 Really looking forward to it, I just hope it doesn't break me. Trying to get solid gains on all 3 might be a bit ambitious, but I'm sure the high volume at lower weights will help my squat tech out to no end, and everyone improves their dead on Coan/Phillipi :twisted:

[Monarchking]

great squats. Even if the last rep was a 3 second grinder lol, its still in the book, done deal :clap:

[red machine]

nice consistent progress there pred, should be some niiiice pbs at nats waiting for ya!

[Phedder]

Cheers guys, about time my squat got at least half respectable. Need to nail 2xbw before I consider myself not weak It shall fall at Nats :twisted:

Ho-Hum session today, went in with the intention of deadlifting 240kg and I did, was just a lot harder than I was expecting :pfft:

Weigh in: 102.2kg - 2 weigh ins in a row now, officially in the 102s.

Deadlifts

5x60kg

3x100kg

2x140kg

1x180kg (LB)

1x200kg (LB)

1x220kg (TB) - Felt good, but not as good as it has in the past. Mrs said it looked quick, so went for 240.

1x240kg (TB) - 5kg PB Happy to have got it, but only a 5kg gain since April 14th isn't the kind of progress I was hoping for :pfft: Definitely better form and easier than the 235 I did in april, but I was still expecting it to be easier I suppose. Wish I'd video'd it so I could see what was off, as it didn't feel 100% right. Glad to see lockout isn't my issue now. It wasn't easy but not the 5 seconds from knees to lockout that 235 was in April. Hopefully with a deload and comp day adrenaline, 250 is still a possibility :pray:

3x180kg (LB) - Quick singles, reset between each lift.

Power Cleans

4x3x60kg

1x80kg

5x60kg

Plate loaded row machine

10x1pps

8x1.5pps

8x2pps

2x12x1.5pps

Lat Pulldowns - D grip

12x105

10x150

8x170

2x6x190

Face Pulls

12x60

12x70

2x8x90

30x50 - Upper back burn :shock:

Secretly I'm hoping that the plates I used for deadlifting were heavier than stated :pfft: All our 20s are numbered from 1 to 58 or something, with the 1s being heavier and 50s lighter. I think most of the plates I used were all under 30, so should be easier with calibrated competition plates...Yep, that's how desperate I am :pfft: :oops:

Hopefully my back feels fine the next few days, hoping for 190x2 squats on Sat.

Checked out the lifters list for nationals, Looks like I won't come dead last in the 105s \:D/ There's an M4 lifter, so a 70+ year old I should beat :oops: :shifty:

[hjp]

Looking in good form bro! Nats shall be good ay

[Phedder]

Looking in good form bro! Nats shall be good ay

It's going to be awesome! Aiming to hit PBs on all my 2nd attempts, and if I make my thirds hopefully total 575kg+ Realistically I think I'll fall just short of that, but we'll see

Heavy Squats/Bench today. Mrs needed to head into the gym at the same time so I got video of my squats.

Weigh in.102.0kg

Squats

lots x bar

5x60kg

3x100kg

3x120kg (LB)

3x140kg (LB)

2x170kg (LB)

2x190kg (TB) - Rep PB My previous 1rm for 2 Button on my phone was playing up so video starts just after I descend, I actually farted at the bottom of the first squat, luck I took a dump before the gym :pfft: :oops:

2x180kg (TB) - Bar almost fell off my back after the 1st rep, managed to recover but it put me off a bit for the 2nd.

5x140kg (LB)

Bench Press

lots x bar

2x5x60kg

3x80kg

2x100kg

1x110kg

1x115kg - Paused, easy.

3x1x110kg - Extended pauses

7x100kg

Pull ups

4x5xbw

SS

Rear Delt raises

4x10x5kg

Done. Pretty happy with squats, especially considering a new PB deadlift 2 days ago as well. Tech could have been better, but it'll do.

Went to the Mad Butcher (They finally open one in Dunedin, 4 months before I leave! What about the last 3 and a half years :evil: ) and brought a 5kg rump, got it sliced into 11 steaks. Post workout meals sorted until Nationals 8)

[M.T]

BOOM :clap:

[Northland Powah]

Hey bro

Just having a squiz through your journal, awesome work on the intense cycle bud smashed it!

Nice little hybrid program you have sorted out as well! massive vol, but if your record is anything to go by it'l be sweet as.

Keep up the intensity and good luck for nats!

[AZIDE]

.

[Phedder]

Cheers guys

Just having a squiz through your journal, awesome work on the intense cycle bud smashed it!

Nice little hybrid program you have sorted out as well! massive vol, but if your record is anything to go by it'l be sweet as.

Yeah dropping my max by 10kgs for the intense cycle was key I think, allowed me to keep up a fair bit of assistance work and keep deadlifts involved too. I'm hoping the volume for the hybrid program is just right for the main lifts, it's the volume/intensity on the assistance work I'll have to keep a close eye on. I specifically chose the bench program though so I could add a fair bit of assistance on the 2nd day to help my weak points.

Went in tonight for a back/shoulders assistance session, didn't feel up to doing anything heavy. Will do my final heavy deadlift session on Wed, and try for a 200kg squat on Fri/Sat.

Hang Clean + Push Press (Not much leg drive, but not strict either.)

10xbar

5x30kg

3x40kg

3x50kg

6x3x60kg

Bent Over Rows - I never do these, felt awkward but easy

10x60kg

2x10x80kg

Seated DB Press

10x16kg

5x8x21kg

Inverted Rows - Feet elevated on bench - First time doing these, they felt awesome! Really good contraction and scapular retraction, will be including these from now on :nod:

12

8

10

10

Lateral DB raises

3x10x11kg

Face Pull

3x12x70

SS

Curls

3x12x30kg

AB wheel

10xbw

2x8x+10kg

Hanging leg raises

2x10

Quickest session I've done in a long time, about 45 mins or so.

[hjp]

Repping some big weight there. 1RM for 2 must feel good. Strong work. See you next weekend!